Tatham sets sights on growth

Tatham: We are still going to see consolidation, whether reseller or vendor. If you have money, and cash is king, you are in a good position to grow.

Nowadays, larger than life, iconic characters in the channel are few and far between, but the name Alex Tatham is almost synonymous with the industry.

After two short months away from the channel, Tatham re-emerged as the managing director of specialist distributor Simms and it is obvious he missed relationships as well as the business side of things during his absence.

“It is great to be back,” he said. “It adds enormous value to the IT industry and the fact that Dell has embraced an indirect model proves it is imperative that the channel exists to improve the service to the end user. I realised how many friends I had in the channel when I returned, and how many years the friendships and working relationships had taken to build.”

Now in his new role, Tatham has some ambitious plans for his new firm.

“I am delighted to be managing director of Simms and one of my remits is to grow the business dramatically, both by acquisition and organically. My target is to quadruple the business in three years,” he said. “Most other players are shrinking, but we have a strong growth plan. As we head into recession, we have the same attitude as Ryanair ­ as others shrink we can grow.”

Growth markets

Following 12 years at Bell Micro, formerly Ideal Hardware, Tatham has given software a temporary wide berth and concentrated his efforts on the memory and SSD markets. “Our core business is memory and solid state, which is where we will focus,” he said.

The firm has recently signed UPS vendor Tripp Lite and PowerTraveller, a company that offers a solar-powered laptop charger. However, Simms still values its close relationship with memory giant Kingston Technology.

“Simms has been in the business for 18 years and is Kingston Technology’s largest distributor,” he said. “We have a 45 per cent market share of the Kingston-branded business ­ which shows the value added by being a niche distributor.”

Kingston Technology confirmed the closeness of the relationship. Ann Keefe, sales director for the UK and Ireland at the vendor, said: “Kingston and Simms have a large customer base and it is our mutual intention to continue to support Simms
in the best possible manner. We are committed to service customers with first-class memory solutions. Simms provides us with great services expertise that supports our growth, while enabling our customers to implement technology initiatives that result in sustainable business advantages.”

Summer bonus
To demonstrate Simms’ appetite for growth, the distributor enjoyed a record month in July, according to Tatham. Because the firm is a private company, no figures are available for publication. However, Tatham said the industry is heading for a downturn.

“It is going to get worse before it gets better,” he said. “But the IT channel is much more resilient than many other markets. People still need to spend money on IT. If you look at the UK economy, the IT industry is well geared up and the
channel itself is pretty lean.

“We are still going to see consolidation, whether it is retail, distribution, reseller or vendor, but that provides opportunities for growing a business as well as shrinking one. If you have money, and cash is king, you are in a good position to grow.”

Tatham has fond memories of Bell Micro. “The moment we signed Microsoft was a particular highlight. We built a fantastic software business at Ideal and later at Bell ­ we grew it from nothing to £350m in the UK alone. When I joined Ideal it was a £110m company and when I left we were an £800m company. Selling ourselves to Bell was a great time for Ideal.”

Tatham dismissed claims that the distribution sector is doomed. “Simms’ aim is to bring products to market. It is inevitable that if a product explodes it will be picked up by the likes of Computer 2000 and Ingram eventually, but being there first is just as important and Simms is very good at what it does. Distr ibution will continue to add value, but I still believe in the saying ‘get big, get niche, or get out’.”